Hi!
I have a surface-mount connector that I'm putting some high voltages on alongside low voltages and signals. The connector itself is has plenty of insulation to handle the voltage differences, however, the copper on the PCB that I'd mount that connector on is too close to each other. With the 0.5mm pitch, they are in danger of arcing. I am trying to adhere to a specification that demands 0.6mm separation ath the 0-50V range I am working with; the footprint copper currently gives 0.2mm separation.
My solution here is to separate high and low voltages and leave two "unused" pins between the used ones. The idea being that this gives me three spaces of 0.2mm, which provide my total separation of 0.6mm. However, I can't connect these pins to either neighbour or ground as they'd then undermine the whole idea. Which creates undesirable floating voltages! My solution to that was to create a small, 3-resistor potential divider with megaohm+ resistances, so that the copper would charge in steps across the voltage delta elegantly.
But... then I realised that for this (large!) connector I'd need 120 or so resistors, which seems a little... excessive! There are lots of pins that need to be isolated from each other. I am wondering therefore if there isn't another way to safely discharge unconnected pins in between two very different voltage pins? I'm quite ready for there not to be a solution to this, but I'm thinking if perhaps there is some partially-conductive paste I could smear over the pins that might put a couple millions ohms between the stuff it touches! Or some other similarly unusual idea...?
Thanks!
I have a surface-mount connector that I'm putting some high voltages on alongside low voltages and signals. The connector itself is has plenty of insulation to handle the voltage differences, however, the copper on the PCB that I'd mount that connector on is too close to each other. With the 0.5mm pitch, they are in danger of arcing. I am trying to adhere to a specification that demands 0.6mm separation ath the 0-50V range I am working with; the footprint copper currently gives 0.2mm separation.
My solution here is to separate high and low voltages and leave two "unused" pins between the used ones. The idea being that this gives me three spaces of 0.2mm, which provide my total separation of 0.6mm. However, I can't connect these pins to either neighbour or ground as they'd then undermine the whole idea. Which creates undesirable floating voltages! My solution to that was to create a small, 3-resistor potential divider with megaohm+ resistances, so that the copper would charge in steps across the voltage delta elegantly.
But... then I realised that for this (large!) connector I'd need 120 or so resistors, which seems a little... excessive! There are lots of pins that need to be isolated from each other. I am wondering therefore if there isn't another way to safely discharge unconnected pins in between two very different voltage pins? I'm quite ready for there not to be a solution to this, but I'm thinking if perhaps there is some partially-conductive paste I could smear over the pins that might put a couple millions ohms between the stuff it touches! Or some other similarly unusual idea...?
Thanks!